


See What We've Become

by Reign_of_Rayne



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Angst, Canon-Typical Violence, Gen, My First Work in This Fandom, Shiro and Pidge bonding, kind of, someone help these poor kids
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-25
Updated: 2016-07-28
Packaged: 2018-07-26 17:36:35
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 13,754
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7583512
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Reign_of_Rayne/pseuds/Reign_of_Rayne
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>They were not ready.  Caught by surprise when a Galra team infiltrates the Castle of Lions during a supply run, Shiro and Pidge must fight together to save Allura, Coran, and the other paladins.  But Shiro's mind is working against him, and Pidge can't produce miracles.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Don't ask me when this takes place. Just...don't.  
> Also, since Pidge identified herself as a girl in the show, that's what I'm rolling with.

 

> _I cannot chase the monster away if the monster is me.  
>  _

 

He has not slept in twenty-two hours. He can’t. In his dreams the shadows lurk, poking and prodding and taking. He is glad the lights in the castle are blue, because they can drown out the yellow and purple haunting his memories.

Restless, Shiro gets out of bed and walks to the nearest mirror. He braces his arms on the counter and stares at his reflection. It is barely visible in the soft blue light the castle gives off at night, but he can see enough.

The scar that was not there, that he can’t remember getting.

The white and gray hair that was not there, that he can’t remember getting.

The metal arm that has taken the place of his real one, that he can’t remember getting.

In the dark it is easy to close his eyes and imagine that nothing has changed, that his arm is still flesh and his hair is dark. Easy to believe that he can open his eyes and be on Kerberos again, his body and mind whole, listening to his commander and his assistant talk about science so complex he barely follows it.

But when he opens his eyes they glow yellow.

He blinks and they are dark brown again.

“Enough of this,” Shiro mutters. He goes back to his bed. Even if his mind will not rest, he can at least rest his body.

 

 

“Wow, Shiro. You look…tired.”

He looks at Lance with one eyebrow up while he makes his way to the table. “Thanks.”

“Have you been sleeping?” asks Keith.

_No._

“Yes, I’m fine. What’s for breakfast?”

“Goo, goo, and more goo,” Lance says. “Hunk’s grabbing us plates now.”

“And Allura?”

“Bridge,” Pidge says. “With Coran.”

Shiro can feel Keith’s eyes on him throughout breakfast. But the red paladin doesn’t approach Shiro until afterwards, when the others are filing out of the room.

“Are you sure you’re okay?”

He appreciates Keith’s concern, and knows that in the future it will help them become even closer as a team. But this is not a problem that Keith needs to worry about; Shiro can handle it on his own.

“I am okay, Keith,” Shiro says. He puts a hand on Keith’s shoulder and squeezes, willing Keith to believe him. “Honest.”

For a moment, Keith is about to argue. But then he smiles, gently knocking Shiro’s breastplate with his fist. “See you in training.”

Shiro watches him go, his smile changing to a pensive frown.

If Keith had seen through him that easily, then he needs to try harder.

 

 

Training for the day is the mental exercise they had done in the very beginning. With the strange headsets on their heads, the paladins arrange themselves in a circle on the training room floor. They don’t need Coran to direct them anymore, and each time the time it takes them to form Voltron grows smaller and smaller. Everyone has broken focus at some point, but they are getting better at keeping it together.

Today they are focusing on connecting. The more trust they have in each other, the more responsive Voltron will be in a fight.

“Keith, keep your breathing steady,” Shiro says. He doesn’t have to open his eyes to know that Keith has grimaced, but the boy’s breathing soon evens out.

Shiro deepens his breathing, pushing his worries and his morning out of his mind and focusing on opening himself to the others. Bonding like this is strange, and without implicit trust Shiro knows that he would find this uncomfortable. But he trusts the other paladins, and they trust him.

He sees food in Hunk’s mind, but behind that are memories of a family and two parents adept at cooking. Keith is thinking of the house he had tracked Voltron from, while Lance is thinking about his family at what appears to be a beach. Pidge is thinking about her brother and father, but her memories are tinged with fondness instead of bitterness.

Shiro keeps his mind blank. Thoughts about the black lion and other random memories drift through his consciousness, but he is not focusing on anything in particular.

He feels someone’s attention on him and lets them explore. He wonders who it is, but he doesn’t want to disturb anyone else’s focus by asking.

They poke around in the wrong place.

A tide of yellow crashes through him, a leering grin and sharp hands that cut like knives and he is falling—

_Champion—_

“Ah!”

Concentration shattered, Shiro opens his eyes to see the other paladins yanking off their headgear. He does the same, blinking the afterimages out of his eyes.

Pidge is shaking, looking at Shiro with wide eyes. “What was that?”

“Yeah, man, that was scary,” Hunk says.

“You all saw that—that creepy thing, right?  With the hands?” Lance asks.

“Yes, we did,” Keith says. “Seriously, Shiro. What was it?”

Shiro shakes his head. “I don’t know. A memory, maybe. From my time as a prisoner.” He is all too aware of his right arm and clenches his hand into a fist. “I’m sorry if anyone was startled.”

Everyone had been startled. He can see that clearly, but Keith shakes his head after a moment of uncomfortable silence.

“It’s not your fault.”

Shiro nods, even though he doesn’t agree. “Let’s take a break for today. We can try again tomorrow.”

Hunk and Lance exchange a look. “We’ll stay. We have to work on our aim.”

Shiro nods acknowledgement. “Okay.” He could ask Allura about their next planned destination, and talk about action plans in the event of an emergency.  Those will be better than going back to his room.

Keith follows him out into the hall. He doesn’t say anything, but Shiro appreciates the silent show of support. He breaks off at one hallway, saying he has to check on something in his room. Shiro waves and then heads to the bridge.

He finds Allura at the helm, looking pensive as she examines a three-dimensional map of their surroundings.

“What’s the situation?” Shiro asks.

“We’re low on supplies,” Allura replies. “There is a moon here that would suit our needs—” she gestures—“but any information I have on its inhabitants and atmosphere is ten thousand years old. The scanners are not picking up any signs of life.”

“Maybe it’s uninhabited,” Shiro says.

“Maybe.”

She doesn’t sound convinced. Her caution is warranted, given the empire hunting them down, so Shiro thinks for a moment.

“When we get closer, Pidge can scout the moon using her stealth tech,” Shiro offers. “That way, we can stay out of range and find any potential attackers.”

Allura brightens. “Wonderful idea! I will call for Pidge when we get close.” Then she frowns. “Weren’t you supposed to be training with the other paladins?”

“Oh, uh…”   Shiro rubs the back of his neck. “We had a bit of an incident. No big deal, but I told them to take a break for the day. We’ll be back at it tomorrow. Lance and Hunk are practicing with their weapons right now.”

A bit mollified, Allura nods.

Coran glances over.

“Shiro! I require your assistance! Well, really only your hands.” Shiro walks over to Coran. “Here, hold this.” Coran hands Shiro a small box. “And this.” Another box. “And this.” A…sphere? “And this.” He is running out of arm space. “And this.” The tower of objects wobbles dangerously, and Shiro’s shoulders burn from strain. “One last thing.”

After rearranging the items so that they won’t fall out of his arms at the slightest bump, Shiro takes them to the storage room Coran had directed him to. On the way he passes Pidge, who appears to have taken apart one of the lights lining the walls. After he finishes, he goes back to her and crouches down.

“What are you doing?”

“Gah!” She jumps, but quickly regains her equilibrium after seeing Shiro. “You startled me.”

Shiro raises one eyebrow, knowing she had heard his question.

“Uh, right. Um. I was just…wondering what powered these.”

“So you took it apart?”

“I was curious.” Pidge is defensive, so Shiro gives her a small smile.

“I’m not mad, Pidge. What have you learned?”

“You…want to know?”

“I was curious too,” Shiro admits. “Honestly, the technology in this place is amazing.” He thinks of his right arm.

“And it’s ten thousand years old!” Pidge is off like a shot, her eyes alive with excitement as she explains what she has figured out from just one light. Shiro can understand most of it, but Pidge occasionally dips into technical jargon that slides over his head. He asks questions, but not too many. He has learned from Lance and Hunk that Pidge does not appreciate being interrupted too often.

She does not seem bothered by the incident during training anymore. Shiro says a few encouraging words and then goes to the training deck. He can observe Lance and Hunk, and give them advice if necessary. Besides, knowing how they fight can help in the future.

 

 

Shiro returns to his room in the late afternoon to shower. His armor is dirty, so he spends a while cleaning it. The material is unlike anything he has ever seen before; despite all the time he has spent in it, it shows no signs of wear.

“It is Altean tech, I guess,” Shiro mutters.

The alarm comes without warning, but Shiro is suited up and running for the bridge in under a minute.

“Allura, what’s going on?”

“Galra patrols are in the system.”

Shiro enters the bridge right as the others do. They are all in their armor, and in the back of his mind Shiro both approves and takes note.

“How close?” asks Keith.

“We’re out of their range,” Coran says. “But we’ll have to be careful if we want to make it to that moon.”

“Moon?” asks Pidge.

“Supplies,” Shiro explains. She nods.

Allura purses her lips for a moment. “Alright. They are not attacking, and as long as we stay in the shadow of the nearby planet and its moons, we can avoid their sensors. If anything goes wrong, we will need you in your lions, so be ready.”

“Yes ma’am,” Shiro says. He doesn’t salute, though the instinctual desire to is there. Years spent as a cadet are hard to ignore, and Allura is technically his commanding officer, even if he is the head of Voltron.

They drift out of the bridge. Shiro goes to his room and begins organizing his few possessions simply for the sake of doing something. He has a souvenir from the denizens of the planet Arus—a staff that barely comes to his knee—and a small crystal hardly larger than his thumb from the balmera. He also has a few new pieces of clothing, which he suspects were made somewhere in the castle. Allura has only hinted as to what the castle has in its depths, and it is too big for Shiro to explore everything in one go.

Organizing his room takes less than ten minutes. He debates doing a quick workout but settles for stretching. He does not want to go into a battle tired, and stretching helps clear his head.

The only warning he gets is sudden shouting from the others. He’s on his feet immediately.

_“What the—”_

“Keith? Lance? Hunk? Pidge? What’s going on? Someone, respond!”

_“There are—“_

Lance’s feed goes to static.

“Lance? Lance, answer me! What’s going on?”

 _“We’re under attack!”_ Allura shouts. _“Some kind of stealth technology—the Galra, they’ve snuck into the Castle! Everyone, get to your—”_

Static. The lights go out, and Shiro’s room is plunged into darkness.

Shiro stands perfectly still, keeping his breathing as calm as he can. “Allura?” Nothing. “Coran. Coran, can your hear me? Keith? Hunk? Is anyone there?”

He can hear someone, but their words are fuzzy and soon fade to white noise. Sporadic words break through, but they make no sense without context.

They are under attack. The Galra must have snuck on board while they were distracted with the other patrols.

_“Shiro? Shiro, are you still here?”_

“Pidge?” Relief fills Shiro. He isn’t the only one left unharmed. “Yes, I’m here.”

_“What happened? What’s going on?”_

“I don’t know. Some kind of attack. We have to assume the others have been captured. Where are you?”

_“The pod hangar, in one of the pods. I hid when I heard Allura, but…”_

“Stay hidden,” Shiro orders. “If they have hostages, we don’t want to let them know where we are and what we’re doing. I’ll come to you, so hang tight.”

_“Understood.”_

Shiro takes a deep breath and looks around his room. If there are unknown enemies wandering the halls, he should avoid taking an obvious route.

His eyes land on a vent set in the wall.

Perfect.


	2. Chapter 2

 

The ducts are dark and the walls press close. Without anything but the soft blue light from his armor guiding the way, Shiro moves through the ducts in search of the pod bay. Only after he finds a juncture with no nearby openings does he pull up a map of the Castle and orient himself.

He’s close to the bridge. It isn’t on the way to Pidge, but he could learn something valuable if their enemies have set up camp there.

He debates for a few more seconds, running the pros and cons through his head. Then Shiro sets his jaw and heads for the bridge.

After several minutes, he gets the hang of moving so that his elbows and knees don’t bang against the sides. By the time he makes it to the bridge, he can move almost silently—or at least quietly enough to avoid detection from anyone below.

He wants to use the sensors built into his suit to locate enemies, but the light the screen will produce will give him away, so he settles for finding the nearest grate and peering through.

The barrier surrounding the command pillars and the crystal is up, and from the scorch marks on the floor around it, Shiro can see that the attackers have tried to get through it. The attackers—Galra, Shiro can see drones pacing past—have spread throughout the bridge, examining the dark screens. He shields his eyes when purple light abruptly fills the room, and he squints to see a few troops setting up lights.

“Curse that princess for locking down this castle,” growls a soldier from right beneath Shiro. “This is going to be a right pain in our necks.”

“If you had been a tick faster, she would not have had the chance,” another soldier growls. The first goes silent and stiff, and Shiro’s eyes narrow. That kind of fear and deference must mean that the second soldier is a commanding officer.

Movement in his peripheral vision draws his eyes to where a pair of sentries is dragging an unconscious Allura from the room. The angle of the vent means that she is out of sight in seconds, but Shiro knows the layout of the room. They are heading for the main hallway.

“What are they doing with you?” he mutters, one hand braced against the side of the grate.

He does another sweep of what he can see. Eight—no, nine visible sentries, four soldiers. One commanding officer, and an unknown number of opponents outside his range of vision.

Too many for him to take on, even with the element of surprise.

Shiro curses and withdraws. The purple light follows him until he turns corner, and then he is plunged into darkness once more. He does not dare use the flashlight built into the suit; if anyone saw the light, he would be caught in minutes.

The journey to Pidge is long, dark, and quiet.

 

 

He stops before the grate in the hangar wall. Going back around the nearest corner, he pulls up the map and activates the scanner.

No enemies.

“They haven’t made it this far yet,” Shiro mutters. “Pidge, you still there?”

_“Yes. I haven’t seen anyone.”_

“Okay, I’m heading down.”

He drops down—it’s a longer fall than he had anticipated, and the jetpack saves him from breaking anything.

The pods are lined up on eight side of the walkway; he doesn’t know which one Pidge is in.

“Pidge, which one?”

_“Hang on, I’m coming out.”_

The nearest pod shimmers and the cockpit cover disappears, revealing Pidge.  She spots him immediately, relief filling her expression.

“Shiro!”

They embrace, and Shiro can feel Pidge shaking.

“It’s okay, we’ll figure this out. I stopped by the bridge on the way here.”

“What did you see?”

“They have Princess Allura,” Shiro says. “And one of the Galra here is a ranking officer, possibly a general. The barrier around the main console and crystal is up, and one of the soldiers was muttering about Allura putting the ship in lockdown.”

Pidge blinks, absorbing the information. “Allura put the ship in lockdown?” Then understanding dawns on her. “That must be why the lights are out! They can’t move the Castle!”

“Not until they get their bigger ships here, at least,” Shiro corrects. “But Allura bought us some time. We just have to put it to good use.”

“Do you have any idea how those guys got in here?”

Shiro glances around the dark hangar, thinking. “Allura mentioned stealth tech. If they avoided our sensors, they could have snuck in a small force.”

“But the alarms—” Pidge froze. “Oh no.”

“What is it?”

“Hunk and I were running diagnostic tests on the internal security systems before training the other day. We never finished.”

“So the security systems were offline when they boarded.”

Pidge nods, her face pale. Shiro puts a hand on her shoulder, drawing her back from shock and guilt.

“This is not your fault, Pidge. No one could have seen this coming. Let’s work together to fix it. We need to rescue the others and expel the Galra from our ship before reinforcements arrive.”

“The Castle doesn’t have power right now,” Pidge says. “It’ll be harder for us to move around.”

“Them, too,” Shiro points out. “As long as we keep to the shadows, we’ll be fine.”

Pidge hums and then snaps her fingers. “I have an idea that can help with that. Here, watch.”

She pulls up a screen with the settings of her suit. “See this button? It controls the lights on your suit—including the flashlight.”

“No flashlights,” Shiro says. “We’ll be seen and caught.”

“I know,” Pidge says, a little miffed that Shiro thought she was considering that. “I mean this—look, you can turn off the blue lights on your suit.” She does just that, and the blue highlights power down to simple gray strips. “There. Now we’ll be even harder to see.”

Shiro smiles as he repeats the process with his own gear. “You’re a genius, Pidge. Any other ideas?”

She shrugs. “I was working on incorporating stealth tech into my armor, but I haven’t had the time to implement it."

“Alright.” He thinks for a second. “There’s nothing to be gained by waiting to be discovered here. They haven’t looked through the vents yet. We can use those to get around.”

“I think we should head for the bridge again. Maybe we can figure out what their plan is by eavesdropping.”

“Good idea. Let’s go.”

The vent Shiro had dropped in from is set high in the wall. Pidge uses her bayard as a grappling hook while Shiro takes a running start and uses his jet pack as a booster for his jump. He nearly knocks Pidge over, but after a few seconds Pidge takes point and they head off through the tunnels.

They run into a dead end. Instead of backtracking, Shiro waits for a sentry patrol to pass beneath them before dropping into the hallway on silent feet. Pidge is a second behind, and quickly traverse the long corridor.

“Pidge, what’s the fastest way to the bridge?” asks Shiro.

She pulls up the map, quickly scrolling through it while using her body to block most of the light. “If we take a few more turns, there should be a vent that can take us straight there. Otherwise, if we go in the vents now, we’ll have to circle around.”

“Faster is best,” Shiro says. “The less time the others have to spend with the Galra, the better.”

They jog down the hallway and turn, only to see a patrol rounding the bend on the opposite end of the hall, their red lights glaringly bright in the darkness. Shiro yanks Pidge back around the corner, barely daring to breathe while he listens for any signs that the sentries had noticed them. Pidge is holding her breath too, and in the dark hallway all Shiro can focus on is the looming gray expanse of the opposite wall.

He can hear the tromp of metal boots on the floor, getting closer.

But no alarms. He exhales slowly, then signals to Pidge that they haven’t been noticed yet.

The sentries keep getting closer, the sound of their approach echoing. Shiro glances around; they need somewhere to hide while the sentries pass. No vents are close enough, and they would be too loud.

Pidge has noticed the problem as well and they quietly head back the way they came, searching for a hiding space.

Shiro finds a door and signals Pidge over. They will have a minute or so of cover thanks to the natural buttress the light poles provide, but the sentries will see them when they walk past. So Shiro runs his hands over the seams of the door, searching for some way to pull it open when the control panel is dark.

“Thirty seconds,” Pidge whispers. Shiro grits his teeth but does not rush.

His mouth is dry, and he swallows.

“Twenty seconds.”

The door is built solidly. He doubts he could punch it in, and he definitely can’t melt it open.

“Ten seconds.” Pidge’s voice is strained. Even if they ambush the patrol, the drones can send out a distress signal.

The stomping seems to match his heartbeat when Shiro finally finds a small latch. Setting his jaw and planting his feet, Shiro heaves the door open. It slides on silent tracks and he and Pidge duck inside. Shiro immediately turns and pulls the door closed right as red begins to bathe the floor outside.

He leans his back against the door, hardly daring to breathe as the boots march past.

Pidge is just a smudge of shadow against a backdrop of more shadow, but her fear radiates off her in waves. They can’t be discovered now, not when they are the only ones who can rescue the others.

The boots pause. Shiro’s breath catches in his throat.

If they have scanners, he and Pidge are had for sure—

“Understood.”

The boots get farther away. They had paused to receive orders. Shiro slumps.

“Too close,” Pidge whispers, her voice wobbly. “Way too close.”

“Yeah,” Shiro agrees. He gives himself five seconds to pull himself together, and then gets to his feet. Activating the flashlight on his suit now that the drones are gone, he sweeps the room.

It’s a normal room, the same as Shiro’s quarters. Nothing in it.

“How many of these rooms are there?” Pidge wonders.

“It’s a big castle,” Shiro says. “Hundreds, probably. Are you ready to move?”

Pidge nods, and after making sure that there are no patrols nearby, they exit the room and head for the vent, cloaked in darkness once more.

They pass over one patrol while crawling through the ducts. Shiro eavesdrops for a moment, hearing that the size of the castle is working to their advantage. The infiltration team doesn’t have enough troops to cover the entire ship quickly.

When the soldiers move on, so do Shiro and Pidge. They make it the rest of the way to the bridge without incident, and find the grate that Shiro had used the first time.

There are more troops visible now—nine—but the number of actual Galra soldiers has gone down. The officer is sitting in Shiro’s chair, but the angle is wrong and Shiro can’t see his expression.

He can hear the officer speaking, though.

“You still have not found them?”

“No, sir.”

He makes a disgusted gesture. “This ship is only so large. Find the black and green paladins, and capture them. Your head is on the line, soldier.”

“O-of course, sir.”

A soldier scurries in and out of view. Shiro exchanges a look with Pidge. The Galrans know they’re missing, but aren’t alarmed. They have some time.

Pidge nods and then gestures to the officer. Another soldier has approached him.

“Sir, the prisoners are being transferred to the ship. Sublevel four.”

The officer takes a second to answer. “Good. Is the crystal still interfering with our communications?”

“Yessir. We cannot breach the barrier.”

“Hmph.”

The soldier leaves. Shiro and Pidge retreat into the ducts, taking a moment to process what they had heard.

“If Allura managed to set up a jamming signal before putting the ship on lockdown, we have even more time than I thought,” says Pidge.

“But if those patrol ships were waiting for a signal, they’ll head over anyway,” Shiro says. “We still have to hurry, but we can afford to be cautious about it.”

Pidge nods. “Did you hear him say that? The sublevel four part.”

“I heard.” Shiro frowns. That had been a little too convenient. “No doubt they’ll be guarded, and the Galra will set up a trap to catch us. We’ll have to be careful.”

“Right.”

Shiro leans back against the wall of the duct, thinking. “We have to figure out what we’re up against.”

Pidge is quiet for a moment. “I have an idea. We can regroup in my room.”

They make it without incident. After checking that the door is completely closed, Pidge sets up a few small lights, bathing the interior of the room in a white and blue glow.

“I’ll set up a proximity scanner to warn us if any sentries get close,” Pidge says, pulling her laptop open. Shiro nods, feeling a little out of place as he leans against the far wall and watches Pidge work. He blinks, and his eyelids feel gritty until he rubs them.

His body feels heavier than it should, and after a moment Shiro realizes that he is still low on sleep.

He curses silently. Had he known the attack was coming—

No, there is no point in thinking like that. What’s done is done.

“There!” Pidge pushes her laptop away and grabs another gadget from the small pile nearby. “This’ll beep if anything is moving nearby.”

“Nice job, Pidge,” Shiro says. Her quick grasp of the Altean technology and subsequent experimentation with it still leaves him reeling sometimes. She and Hunk both.

She grins at him, and he’s reminded that she is only fourteen.

Fourteen and a defender of the universe.

He does a quick mental inventory of their supplies to distract himself from those thoughts.

“So we have the element of surprise, your bayard, and our armor.” Shiro bites his lip. “It’s not much, but it should be enough. If we can intercept them before the patrol ships arrive, we have a greater chance of getting everyone out safe.”

“Actually,” Pidge says, pulling up a map and referencing something on her laptop, “I think I found something the other day that could make our chances a little better.”

 

 

“An armory?” Shiro asks, dropping down into the dark room. After confirming that there are no Galra nearby, he activates the flashlight on his armor and looks around. Racks of weapons—guns, knives, and even a few spears—line the walls, as well as a few other devices poking out from weapons lockers.

“Yeah.” Pidge drops down after him, activating her flashlight as well. “I was scanning the castle for any abnormalities left after the infection incident, and this room came up. I was gonna explore it earlier, but…” She shrugs.

“Well, I’m glad you remembered it.” Shiro looks around. “A ranged weapon will definitely be useful if we get into a firefight. Have you been training with your bayard?”

“Of course.”

Shiro selects what appears to be a pistol. He spends a few seconds examining it and figuring out that the magazine is an energy cartridge, but the general principles of the weapon appear to be the same as what he remembers from Earth. He tosses it to Pidge.

“Just in case,” he says. She nods and clips the pistol to the magnetic holster on her left thigh.

Shiro finds a rifle that suits his needs and grabs a few spare energy cartridges, clipping them to his belt. Pidge pokes around.

“There are grenades in here,” she says. “And other explosives. I think this is the Altean equivalent of a rocket launcher.”

Shiro is over there in a flash, gently pushing the lid of the crate back down. “Let’s save that for another day, okay?” Pidge’s curiosity is good, but Shiro really does not want to have it get her in trouble.

“Right.”

After checking the lock on the door—he doesn’t want the Galra to find this room—Shiro heads back to the vent. “Let’s head back to your room. Can you scan the entire ship from there?”

Pidge sucks on her lip. “It’ll be hard with the Castle dead in space. Honestly, we’re lucky life support is still online. I’ll do my best.”

Shiro nods and then reaches a hand down, pulling Pidge up. He gently slides the grate back into place, and they begin the long trip back to Pidge’s quarters.


	3. Chapter 3

They have to change destinations when Shiro hears drones in the ducts. They end up at his room, keeping the lights on their armor off in case a sentry passes overhead. Shiro is glad the room is dark; Pidge won't see the dent in the wall from when Shiro had punched it in frustration some time ago. He regrets hitting the wall now, but there is nothing to be done.

"They just made things much more complicated," Shiro mutters, crossing his arms while he drags his mind back to more important matters. "We'll have to be careful when travelling around."

Pidge hums an affirmative. "So what do we do? I can't do much with just the sensors built into our suits."

Shiro tips his head back so it rests against the wall. His eyes pick out random shapes among the darkness that disappear when he looks straight at them.

"Shiro?"

"One second," Shiro says, keeping his tone soft so Pidge knows he's not snapping at her. The thought of Allura, Lance, Hunk, Keith, and Coran in the hands of the Galra has been a constant burn in the back of his mind, and ignoring the resultant stress has been getting harder every minute he stays still.

They are running low on information, but they have weapons and a way to get more if necessary. The Galra troops don't know where they are and don't consider them enough of a threat to go on full alert. Their friends are all still alive, and they have a likely location for where they are being held.

Shiro nods to himself, and then clears his throat. "Alright, Pidge. I've got a plan." Or the beginnings of one, he adds silently.

It's odd explaining in the dark, unable to see much of Pidge's expression, but Shiro has managed stranger feats. "We have to find where they boarded. From there we'll infiltrate the Galra battleship. Disguises won't work, so we'll have to stay hidden for as long as possible."

"If you get me near a terminal on their ship, I can hack it, maybe get a map," Pidge says. "Then we can find and rescue everyone."

Shiro nods, though Pidge can't see him. "Sounds like a plan."

 

 

Getting to the breach turns out to be the easy part. It takes only an hour of searching, and in the end they simply follow a patrol until it heads back to where it came from.

Getting through the breach is the hard part.

Shiro counts four drones with glowing red highlights on their armor and a soldier before ducking back behind the corner to avoid being spotted.

"What's the situation?" Pidge whispers, the whites of her eyes barely visible.

"They used one of the airlocks," Shiro replies in the same quiet tone. "Forced the doors open. I counted four sentries and one guard. No sign of any of them moving anytime soon."

"There aren't any vents closer to the airlock," Pidge mutters, casting her gaze to the ceiling.

"No, there aren't," Shiro agrees. "This won't be easy."

They spend a minute planning, and when the latest patrol walks through and shows no signs of returning, they act.

Pidge sends out a hologram that sprints past the guards, drawing their attention. While they are distracted, Shiro drops the four sentries with five shots from his rifle—he's out of practice with traditional weapons, much to his irritation—and then gets close enough to tackle the soldier before he can call for help. They hit the ground hard, and Shiro pins the Galra's limbs as best he can.

"How many of you are there?" he demands, glaring at the Galra's yellow eyes. They make him sick to his stomach. "Where have you put the other paladins? How did you find us?"

The soldier just grins. "Success or death," he says.

Shiro's muscles lock.

_"Success or death," the warden growls, yanking Shiro from his cell. His clothing nearly tears in the Galra's grip and the ground is hard under Shiro's shoulder. His breath is ragged, his ribs still sore from the match the previous day. "Which will it be today, Champion?"_

The guard bucks under Shiro and throws him off, reaching for his gun. Shiro activates his arm but knows he won't be fast enough to deflect the shot—

Green lightning arcs over the guard's body and he slumps with a strangled noise, his eyes sliding shut. A few paces away, highlighted by the soft green light of her Bayard, Pidge stands and stares at Shiro. Her face is pale.

"Shiro, are you okay?"

He shakes his head to clear it and manages a nod. "Yeah, Pidge, I'm okay. Thanks for covering me."

He doesn't spare the guard so much as a backward glance as he and Pidge board the Galra ship.

 

 

Shiro realizes they aren't in a regular Galra battleship by the third hallway. The corridors are too narrow, and the design is subtly different. He doesn't recognize the layout. Shiro opens his mouth to say as much to Pidge, but the signature stamping of metal on the floor has him ducking around a corner instead. He and Pidge wait for the patrol to pass, hands hovering near their weapons just in case.

Shiro's heart is beating just a little too fast, a little too loud. He isn't sure whether his tension is from the lack of sleep or his surroundings.

The patrol passes.

"This isn't a normal ship," Pidge whispers. Shiro nods.

"I was just about to say the same thing. If you get the chance, get information about this ship. I don't want to be caught by surprise like this again."

Five turns and one patrol later, they find a side room with a bank of monitors on one wall. Shiro rushes the three sentries inside and takes two out while Pidge handles the third. Shiro then drags the robots out of sight and closes the door, leaving Pidge to hack the terminal.

It takes her several minutes.

"Done," Pidge declares. She taps her wrist and enters a few things on the screen that pops up. "I shared the map with you, and downloaded the basic schematics of the ship. It's not much, but it should work."

"Did you find where they're holding the others?"

"Sublevel three," Pidge says. "I think they were trying to trick us by saying sublevel four."

"How could they have known we were eavesdropping?" Shiro pauses to think. "Unless they didn't, and were trying to spread misinformation throughout their forces. We would have picked it up at some point."

Pidge nods.

The door opens. Shiro has turned and dropped the first sentry with a shot in a second but he isn't fast enough to stop the other drone from sounding the alarm. The robot goes down a moment later. Shiro and Pidge are already moving, Shiro practically dragging Pidge by the arm.

"Time to move!"

Pidge takes the lead, consulting the map every few turns and slowly getting them closer to where the Galra have imprisoned Allura, Coran, and the other paladins.  Every time they are nearly cornered, Pidge finds a way out. They use their shields to deflect the shots when possible, but it proves difficult when running.

Finding their friends won't mean anything if they do it with twenty drones on their tail.

Shiro pushes Pidge in front of him. "Keep going! Don't worry about the map, we just have to lose them!"

Pidge runs faster, but Shiro can tell by her ragged breathing that she's flagging. Academy conditioning can only do so much, but Shiro makes sure to keep pace. He isn't going to leave anyone behind.

A bolt scorches the ground right next to Shiro's foot. He grits his teeth and keeps running.

They round a corner and take off, only realizing when it's too late to turn back that the walkway stretches over a vast empty space and there's only one way to go. Feeling his heart hammering in his chest, Shiro pushes Pidge as much as he dares, trying to say encouraging words despite how his lungs aren't getting enough air.

The walkway shudders under their feet, the metal ringing with each stride. Fifty yards to the other side. Forty. Thirty. Twenty. Ten.

A blast, a scream, and Pidge is gone. Shiro lurches to the railing, hand outstretched even though he's far too late, screaming Pidge's name, heedless of the gunfire raining down around him as the drones get closer.

"PIDGE!"

He desperately scans the space below, searching for any hint of the green paladin.

"Pidge!" he yells again, throat burning. "Pidge, respond!"

There is a crackle of static from his helmet. A bolt hits Shiro's right arm and he puts his shield up, but he isn't paying attention to the drones. He listens to the comms with frantic focus.

_"I—I'm okay,"_ Pidge says, but her voice is strained.

"What happened? Where are you?"  Shiro thinks he sees a glimmer of green but he can't tell whether it's actually Pidge or just his eyes seeing what he wants them to see.

_"Something hit my back—jetpack's damaged. I caught myself on the wall with my bayard, but I think I pulled something. I can barely move my arm."_

"I'll—"

_"No! Shiro, you've got to go."_

"I'm not leaving you!" Shiro says, ignoring the red warning flash on his visor that indicates his shield is about to break.

_"I'm way out of your reach, Shiro. Besides, they won't look for me down here. I'll be okay. But you have to go."_

"Pidge. I won't."

_"You will."_ She doesn't sound fourteen with that much steel in her voice. _"If they catch you who knows what they'll do. Run!"_

The animal terror that rips through Shiro at the thought of being captured again is enough to send him running, though he keeps glancing back. "Keep in contact!"

_"Of course! I'll find a way up soon."_

Somehow, Shiro's luck holds long enough for him to slip away from the guards. He hates to think it, but without Pidge, losing the drones is almost easy. He's faster than them, and more maneuverable.

He spends a few minutes catching his breath, listening to an alarm blaring in the background. "Pidge, what's your situation?"

_"Can't talk right now. Climbing."_

So she wasn't captured. Good.

Shiro pulls up the map Pidge had sent him, quickly orienting himself. The long walkway had taken him to the side of where the prison cells were. After committing the map to memory, Shiro steps back into the hall with his rifle in his hands.

He's careful, avoiding patrols when possible and taking a circuitous route so that the Galra won't know what direction he's coming from. He has to reload his rifle at one point, the magazine running out of charge right as a patrol is rounding the corner. Realizing he won't be fast enough, Shiro throws the rifle hard at one drone and takes its partner out by jamming his right hand through its chest.  The one the rifle had knocked down meets the same fate.

Collecting his rifle and reloading it, Shiro keeps moving.

The lights change from purple, to green, to scarlet. He gets a few flashbacks but grits his teeth through them. There will be time for that later; he has to rescue his friends now.

That thought doesn't stop them from coming.

He runs across three more patrols, taking two down at a distance and ambushing the third when it rounds a corner.  When he makes it to the hall of cells, he has to hang back several turns. There are more than twenty guards in the immediate area, half of which are actual soldiers.

"Pidge, you there?"

_"Yeah. Made it out of the pit."_

A small amount of the tension between Shiro's shoulder blades eases. "We need a distraction. Something that will draw the guards away from the cells."

_"How many are there?"_

"At least twenty. It'll have to be a big distraction."

_"Uh."_

Her tone makes him instantly suspicious. "Pidge?"

Shiro hears her clear her throat. _"I, um, may have swiped a few grenades from the armory."_

Shiro stows the lecture for a later time. "Those will work. Just make sure you're well clear of the blast zone; we don't know how big of an explosion those things will make. Give me the signal when you're in position."

_"Roger that."_


	4. Chapter 4

The minutes Shiro spends waiting for Pidge go by without regard to the five lives hanging in the balance. Four times Shiro has to stay out of sight of a passing patrol, and one of those times is so near a miss that Shiro's hand is glowing with heat before the patrol passes by. Shiro's patience is on the verge of running out when Pidge says,

_"I'm ready. Detonating on the count of three."_

Shiro takes a deep breath and checks his rifle one last time. Loaded, safety off.

_"One."_

He can do this. He will do this.

_"Two."_

In and out. Simple.

_"Three."_

The explosions—three, in quick succession—nearly knock Shiro from his feet, the shockwaves slamming into him like hammer blows a split second later. Dust and debris blow through the corridors soon afterwards, clouding the air and making it harder to see. Everything is tinged a watery scarlet from the lights that weren't blown out from the blasts.

The guards start shouting, and when Shiro peeks around the corner, he sees that all but three drones have gone to investigate.

Shiro sneaks up on the remaining three and takes out two with his hand before the third has time to turn around, and by the time the drone has raised its weapon Shiro has shot it between the eyes. It falls with a heavy clang, its red lights flickering and then fading to black.

The keypad by the nearest doesn't respond to his hand, so Shiro knocks on it.

"Whoever is in here, stand back!"

His limb shimmers with heat and he jams it through the metal, quickly cutting out a large circle. The molten metal hisses and cools while Shiro pulls out the section he had cut.

"Shiro?"

He knows that voice.

"Allura," he says, reaching out a hand to help her out. She makes it through without touching the hot edges, and regards Shiro with a worried gaze.

"Are you hurt? Where's Pidge?"

"I'm fine. Pidge is distracting the guards. Where are the others?"

Allura glances at the fallen guards, her lips thinning in quietly contained rage. She raises her hands and Shiro breaks the cuffs. "They put us in separate cells, but I believe we're all in this hallway. I apologize for not assisting you, but anything I said would have been overheard. I did not want to compromise you."

He knows Allura is thinking of the incident with Pidge. "It's alright, Princess."

Shiro repeats the cutting method on two more doors while Allura forces the remaining doors open with strength alone. The others spill into the hallway, all except Keith.

"Shiro?" Allura's tone carries worry, enough that Shiro leaves Hunk to stand on his own and hurries over. "It's Keith. I believe he is unconscious. He was shouting earlier, and the guards must have knocked him out."

Keith is slumped down in his cell, unresponsive. Shiro goes to him and picks him up, awkwardly holding him bridal style.

When he gets into the hall, Allura takes Keith out of his arms.

"What—"

"I can carry him while you cover us," Allura explains. She smiles. "Besides, I believe I can do it more efficiently."

Thinking of how she had ripped open the doors, Shiro is inclined to agree, so he stifles his protests after making sure Keith isn't obviously injured and then turns to Hunk, Lance, and Coran.

"We're getting out of here, but we'll have to be fast. I don't know how many soldiers are here, and they'll be waiting for us back at the entrance to the Castle. Hunk, your weapon is going to be invaluable."

Hunk nods, and in a moment he has his bayard out, the heavy gun resting comfortably in his arms.

"Lance, you too. I'll take point and lead the way. Hunk, stay with me. Lance, watch our backs. Coran, I need you to cover Keith and Allura. Watch our sides. If you see anything, shout."

Coran salutes, his expression serious.

Once he is sure everyone is ready, Shiro starts jogging down the hallway. The others follow.

The corridors are longer than Shiro remembers, the open spaces more numerous. Every time they round a corner Shiro expects to see an entire legion of drones.

Lance and Hunk hold their own, mowing down any drone unfortunate enough to be spotted. Shiro keeps his finger hovering just off the trigger of his rifle just in case, but Hunk reduces any robots to smoking wrecks almost as soon as Shiro sees them.

Twice he has the consult the map when he loses track of where they are. Three times energy bolts get close enough to Allura to singe her hair, but every time her reflexes keep her from getting seriously injured. Even so, Hunk and Lance seem to take down the next drones to appear with more venom than before.

The lights are purple when Keith groans, shifting in Allura's arms. Shiro signals for everyone to halt and they take cover in the hallway while Shiro and Allura wait for Keith to wake up. He comes to slowly, but focuses on Allura, and then Shiro. His voice is thick when he speaks.

"What happened?"

"We got attacked," Shiro explains. "You were captured. We're getting everyone out now. Can you walk?"

Allura helps Keith to his feet and Keith takes a few experimental steps before nodding.

"We've got incoming!" Lance calls, firing his rifle down the hall.

Moving goes faster with Keith up and aware, and he covers Allura's other side, keeping his shield and sword at the ready. Shiro keeps an eye on him, noting that Keith isn't moving with his usual surety.

They make it back to the breach, but it's heavily defended. Drones pace back and forth in front of it, and there are enough of them to be a problem. Shiro ducks out of sight.

"They're ready for us," he says. "At least thirty drones. All armed."

Even with the element of surprise, they won't be able to take down that many before the drones retaliate.

"Every second we wait is a second for the rest to catch up," Keith points out.

"As much as I hate to agree with Keith, he's right," says Lance.

Shiro notices for the first time that Lance's left eye is blackening, a dark bruise forming under it. He switches his gaze to Keith and sees a small amount of blood matted in what little Shiro can see of his hair under his helmet. Even Allura is favoring her right leg, and Coran has been keeping his right arm close to his side for several minutes now.

"Coran, were you hit?" Shiro asks. The advisor stiffens. Shiro's right shoulder and upper arm ache where the bolt had hit them on the walkway.

"I am perfectly fine," he says.

"Coran," Allura says.

"It's just a graze."

Hunk frowns. "Uh, that's not a graze. You're bleeding, bad."

"Let me see," Allura says. Coran holds out his arm, and Allura sucks in a breath. Without hesitating, she rips off his undamaged sleeve and makes an impromptu bandage.

"Wow, Princess, when did you learn that?" Lance asks, sounding genuinely impressed.

"We can discuss it later," Allura replies, finishing. "We must go. I can hear our pursuers approaching."

"Hate to be the bearer of bad news, but the robots are still there," Hunk says. "And there are still lots of 'em."

Shiro wishes he had more time. They need a plan, something to minimize casualties.

But time isn't something they have in abundance.

"This is going to be reckless," Shiro begins, "so if anyone has any better ideas, speak up."

The plan—if it can even be called that—is simple: go in guns blazing. Hunk, as the one with a strictly two-handed weapon, is to take point. Shiro and Keith will cover him with their shields while Lance will use his bayard from behind the wall. Allura gets Shiro's rifle while Coran watches for any surprise attacks from their pursuers.

"On my mark," Shiro says, conjuring his shield. Keith does the same. "Now!"

They burst out from around the corner, guns blazing. Twelve bots go down before the rest turn around. Another four in the time it takes them to start returning fire. Shiro trusts his reflexes and shields Hunk and himself as best he can, knowing that Keith is doing the same from the opposite side.

One bolt slips through and hits Shiro in the chest as he is trying to shield Hunk's leg. It knocks him flat, the armor protecting him from the burns but not the concussive force.

"Shiro!"

He doesn't know who yells, but in the next second he can hear two simultaneous cries of pain. Hunk drops next to him, cradling his right arm as his bayard shrinks to its original state.

Shiro gets to his feet, calling up his shield just in time to stop a bolt that would have hit Hunk in the head. With panic clawing at his consciousness, Shiro whips his head around, trying to find who else was hurt. He sees Allura clutching her midsection with one hand but still firing the rifle with the other, her eyes squinted with pain.

"Hunk, can you move?" Shiro asks, because Hunk is clearly not okay. Hunk nods, the muscles in his neck taut.

"Just my arm."

Shiro should have covered him. If he hadn't slipped up and gotten hit—

"We've got to go!" Coran calls. "More are coming!"

He glances up just in time to see Lance take down the last of the robots. Getting to his feet, Shiro hauls Hunk up and pushes him towards the door, catching the rifle that Allura tosses his way.

His chest throbs.

"Go!" he says to the others. "I'll cover you. Go!"

They quickly cross over to the Castle, Shiro walking backwards and dropping the next five sentries that round the bend.

He misses three times.

The fourth doesn't matter; the drones abruptly freeze, right as Pidge's voice comes through the comms, scratchy and pained and so very small.

_"Shiro?"_

Panic sets in anew, tearing at him with claws and teeth. "Pidge? Pidge, where are you?"

He'd thought Pidge had gotten away, that she was either in the Castle or very close.

He should have known better, but he was tired and distracted and—

No excuses. He'd left her behind.

_"I—the blasts. I was too close."_

Shiro's heart drops to his stomach. He knows his face is draining of color, can feel the others' gazes on his back but he can't face them.

"What happened?"

_"I got knocked out. They're coming. My leg—my leg isn't working."_

"Pidge," Shiro says, and he really can't think of anything else, too busy coming up with a way to get back in the ship and rescue her even though he doesn't even know where she is yet. The drones still aren't moving, their still forms ominous

 _"It—it really hurts, Shiro,"_ Pidge says, and the amount of pain she is in comes across clearly.

"Find somewhere to hide, I'll come get you," Shiro says, his brain stalling.

Pidge is silent for ten agonizing seconds. Then,

_"It's too late. They've already found me."_

"Pidge?" No response. "Pidge! Answer me! _Pidge_!"

Nothing. Shiro feels his muscles lock, ignoring the concerned looks from the others, and struggles to keep his breathing even.

And then, noise. From Pidge's end.

 _"Listen closely, paladin of the black lion."_ The voice is low, gravelly. Galra. Shiro balls his hands into fists, teeth gritted. Around him, the others have frozen, hearing the voice as well. _"This is General Korlok. If you want to see your friend again—"_  Shiro can hear Pidge shouting to be let go in the background, but her voice is faint— _"you will return to our ship. You will be escorted to the bridge. Do this within the next five minutes or the green paladin dies."_


	5. Chapter 5

Keith is the first to move, after nearly ten seconds of shocked silence. Shiro grabs his bicep to stop the other paladin entirely on instinct. He uses his right hand, and barely remembers to keep his grip loose.  The cybernetic limb whirs softly, and Keith glances at it before looking right into Shiro's eyes.  His gaze is hard and angry.

"What are you doing?" Keith asks.

"Wait," Shiro replies, forcing his mind to get over its shock and allow him to think clearly. "We need a plan."

"Plan?" Hunk says. "They've got Pidge!"

"Hunk, I know you're upset," Shiro starts, but Lance interrupts.

"Upset? _Upset_? He's got every right to be that way. Pidge is a prisoner, alone and injured, and you want us to wait?"

"I want us to plan," Shiro clarifies, looking to Allura and Coran for help. He knows why the other paladins are upset, he understands, but he's learned that charging in won't help anything. Worst-case scenario, they all end up captured, and then no one is getting rescued.

A crackle from the comms.

_"Four minutes,"_ General Korlok says.

And then something far worse: screaming.

Pidge is screaming, her voice riddled with agony even when it's translated through the comms. Shiro winces at the sound, his skin burning as the sense-memory of being tortured scorches his brain and makes the hair on the back of his neck stand on end.

Keith tries to tug away. Shiro tightens his grip.

"Can't you hear her screaming?" Keith demands. "We need to go, _now._ "

"Charging in recklessly won't get us anything," Shiro says, struggling to keep his voice even with Pidge screaming in the background. The sound sets his teeth on edge and make his headache worse.

He hasn't slept in over thirty-two hours.

Pidge's cries abruptly cut off. The quiet is as unsettling as it is deafening. Shiro realizes part of Keith's expression is pain and releases him, his right arm dropping loosely to his side.  The cybernetic limb feels heavy enough to unbalance him.  Everyone is staring at him, expectant.  He is the black paladin, the leader, after all.  But Allura is their commander and Coran her assistant, but even they look overwhelmed.

Shiro is overwhelmed.  The only rescue he's ever done is his own, and he still doesn't know whether that was for better or for worse.

An idea hits him, and he wants to laugh at how dangerous it is.

Shiro swallows instead. "Guys, I have a very bad idea."

 

 

There are two drones on either side of him, one in front of him, and one behind him with its rifle pointed squarely at Shiro's back. The cuffs chafe at Shiro's left wrist, but the pain is negligible. He focuses on the back of the drone in front of him, making sure his breaths are deep and even. He needs a clear mind for what's to come.

He still can't believe the others agreed with his plan.

He still can't believe he thought of his plan.

Shiro's escort stops him in front of the large doors that must lead to the bridge. They slide open to reveal the command center, a humming central of screens and Galra soldiers and technicians, most of whom stop what they are doing to stare at Shiro.  Their gazes carry physical weight.

Pidge is lying on her side several yards away, but she turns towards Shiro when the doors finish opening with a hollow noise.

"Shiro?" she asks. Her eyes immediately widen at the drones that shove him farther into the room. "What are you doing here? Where are—"

The soldier standing over her kicks Pidge hard enough to make her gasp. Shiro glares, but the soldier just grins back.

Shiro realizes Pidge doesn't have her helmet.

"So you're the black paladin," a Galra soldier says. Shiro turns and stares him in his glowing yellow eyes, trying to burn a hole through his head with his glare alone. The soldier jerks his head and the drones force Shiro to his knees, aggravating his burned right shoulder, but he doesn't let any of the pain show through. "I was expecting…more."

Shiro's eyes dart to the soldier watching over Pidge once more. He is watching, still smirking, but without the slumped posture from before. Shoulders and back straight—deferential.  And Shiro recognizes this Galra; he saw him back in the Castle of Lions, sitting in _his_ chair.

Well.

"General Korlok, then?" Shiro asks. He can see Pidge's helmet clutched in the general's right hand but keeps his eyes up so the Galra won't notice his focus. Shiro wonders how the general got from the Castle back to his ship, and then realizes he must have done so when that drone sounded the alarm. "I could say the same."

The general's smile is all teeth. "You are quite arrogant for a man leading a team of children. You did well to get in and out of my ship when my guards and I were moving locations, but your charade ends here."

Shiro looks to Pidge, whose eyes—while pinched with pain—blaze with anger and frustration. He catches her eye and nods. He doesn't know what she gets from that simple gesture, but he hopes that she understands he came here with a plan.

"Pay attention when your betters speak to you," General Korlack says.

And then he backhands Shiro, the motion so calculated and practiced that Shiro has no time to avoid the blow. Shiro's neck snaps to one side, heat blooming along the side of his face. Shiro tastes copper in his mouth and prods where his lip had split against his teeth. He spits, and blood stains the floor.

In an instant, the general has picked Shiro up by his neck, holding him almost suspended entirely from the floor.

"Do not defile my ship, you worthless alien scum," he hisses, squeezing tight enough to send black dots surging in the edges of Shiro's vision. He can hear Pidge shouting, but she goes silent with a yelp of pain. "Apologize."

Shiro forces his eyes to focus back on the general. He grins. Behind his back, his right hand glows purple and after an agonizing second, the cuffs melt. His left hand burns with pain only to go numb, and the drones have noticed and are shouting—

But Shiro is still staring at the general, and when he speaks, he knows the general hears.

"No."

Shiro brings his metal arm around while lashing out with his feet, hitting the general hard in the stomach. The general's grip disappears when he staggers and Shiro falls onto his back, the breath leaving him in a pained gasp. But he's already moving, scooping up Pidge's helmet from where the general had dropped it and activating his shield.

"Pidge, we gotta go!" Shiro yells. Pidge is soon on her feet, and though she can only limp she manages a shuffling run after Shiro cuts her restraints apart and half-drags her forward.

Two bolts hit Shiro in the leg and he stifles a curse, dragging the limb across the entrance's threshold while Pidge closes the large doors. The metal groans shut as more energy bolts thud into it.

Shiro can hear the Galra shouting.

"I want them ALIVE!" roars Korlok. Shiro glances at Pidge, and without a word they start moving again. Shiro grits his teeth every time he puts weight on his injured leg, and Pidge notices all too quickly.

"Shiro, let me help," Pidge says, but Shiro shakes his head.  Pidge's face is white with pain, and she is bracing herself against the wall while putting as little weight on her right leg as possible.  If she tried to help, she would only hurt herself more.

"You're barely walking yourself," he says, and then glances around. "We need to find a way down."

Every step is agony but Shiro ignores his body and helps Pidge instead, knowing that she is far worse off. He can put weight on his leg after a minute, and though he doubts he can run, he can throw Pidge's arm around his shoulder and half-carry her through the halls.

They find a shaft after another thirty tense seconds and drop down, using their jetpacks to cushion their fall.

Shiro pulls Pidge into an empty room at the first possibility.

"You planned for this, right?" Pidge gasps, slipping her helmet on. Sweat has plastered her hair to her forehead, and her eyes are red. "Please tell me you planned for this to happen."

Shiro offers her a crooked smile. "In a way." He clips their belts together using a special cable built into their suits and tells Pidge to grab his left bicep. His left hand is still numb, but Shiro suspects it won't stay that way for long. The glove is burned away, and the skin beneath is red and blistering. His armor had protected most of his wrist from the melting metal cuffs, but his hand wasn't so lucky. "I need you to trust me, and hold my arm like your life depends on it."

Pidge's eyes are wide. Shiro doesn't wait for an affirmative—he can hear Galra getting closer—and he jams his hand into the floor. As he had suspected from the map of the ship, he's at the bottom, and the vacuum of space sucks them out of the ship as soon as Shiro finishes cutting the hole through over three feet of metal plating.

Pidge screams and Shiro pulls her close as the blackness of space envelopes them, their momentum pushing them away from the Galra ship. Pidge goes quiet after a few seconds, her eyes wide while she finds her voice.

" _This_ was your plan?"

Shiro smiles, relief making him heady. "Not everyone has stealth tech. Keith!"

_"I'm on my way."_

Seconds later, the red lion swoops towards them, its maw gaping.

"You're insane," Pidge says once they're safely inside, but her voice is shaky with relief and Shiro still wants to laugh because he did it, Pidge is safe and they got away.

It takes less than two minutes for everyone to regroup in the Castle of Lions. Allura has already rebooted the Castle and put up its defenses to take out any drones still wandering inside, while Keith and Lance go to forcibly detach the Galra ship from the Castle with their lions.

Coran takes Shiro and Pidge directly to the infirmary.

"No arguments," he says when Shiro points out they aren't out of the woods yet. "You are a team. Trust your teammates to handle the rest while you recover. We don't want anyone keeling over in the middle of a fight, you know."

When Shiro and Pidge keep trying to resist, Shiro pointing out that Coran is just as injured, the redhead stops supporting the both of them and they fall, their legs unable to take the unexpected weight.

"Point taken," Shiro groans, glancing at Pidge. She had bitten her lip when she fell to muffle a shout of pain, but a smile is tugging at her lips. She knows Coran is right, same as Shiro, even though Shiro wants to kick Coran in the shin for dropping them. He wonders whether Alteans have a different pain tolerance than humans, but the words slip from his tongue when he tries to speak them.

Stripping off their armor is agony, but Coran is all business and he gives them something Shiro suspects is a painkiller, because the world goes fuzzy at the edges. He wants to panic, something in the back of his mind telling him he _should_ panic, that he can't let his senses be dulled, but his mind is warm and he can't dredge up the energy to care.

They go into the healing tubes—Shiro knows Coran has an official name for them, something-replenishers, but he can't remember it—with poor grace. Shiro's last view is of Coran at the console, red seeping through the wrapping on his arm.

Then darkness.


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I promise I read and enjoy all of your comments, even if I don't respond.

 

When Shiro staggers out of the healing chamber, Hunk and Lance are there to catch him. His mind is foggy, his thoughts plodding along until his brain finally connects to his mouth.

"What happened?" he asks as they sit him down on the steps. Hunk goes to get food while the others pour into the room, alerted by some signal Shiro hadn't heard. Shiro looks around and doesn't see Pidge, but Allura inclines her head and Shiro turns to see Pidge still in one of the tubes, her eyes closed and her expression peaceful. He can't see any signs of obvious injuries, and he relaxes.

"Pidge was the most wounded of all of us," Allura says. "But she will be waking up early tomorrow."

Shiro glances around, seeing that everyone else appears healed. So he was the second worst; somehow he isn't surprised, though he wishes Pidge hadn't gotten the worst of it. She hadn't deserved any of it, especially after Shiro dragged her into such a dangerous situation.

"You should've seen me chase away that Galra ship!" Lance says, sliding in front of Shiro and distracting him from his thoughts. "I was incredible!"

"I was there too," Keith says, frowning at Lance. "I was the one that stopped the fighters from tearing you to pieces."

"Yeah, but did you see Blue rip the ships apart? I was so awesome!"

"I was better!"

Shiro watches the two settle into familiar banter with a smile on his face. Seeing them argue so normally after such a tense situation is reassuring in a way he can't properly explain.

The mice run circles around his feet, and when Shiro reaches down, they scramble onto his arms and up to his shoulders. Hunk returns moments later with two plates of goo, and Shiro takes them gratefully. His stomach rumbles even at the sight of the oddly colored substance, and once he starts digging in he realizes how hungry he is.

He watches as Coran intercedes on Lance's behalf, only to get dragged down by Keith. Then Coran is his own side, somehow holding up against an assault from Keith that is all angry gestures and loud words while Lance appears to be playing charades.

Despite their tones and postures, Shiro can see the easy sets to their shoulders, the smiles just barely not breaking through the mock frowns.

He realizes what they're doing—or trying to do. They want to distract him.

He doesn't fault them for their efforts, so when Keith drags him into the argument, Shiro goes in with a smile.

 

 

Despite getting a full day and a half of rest in the infirmary, Shiro still feels exhausted by the time he gets to his room that night. He's already made sure that the other paladins—save Pidge, who is still healing—are in their rooms and, if not sleeping, then getting there.

He sits on his bed with the weight of the world on his shoulders and tries to breathe.

They're alive.

They made it.

Everyone is okay.

The Galra are gone.

With the lights on he can pretend as though the past few days haven't happened. He knows they will get into worse situations in the future, that the Galra will keep coming until they're dead.

Success or death.

But everyone—Lance, Keith, Pidge, Hunk, Allura, and Coran—have all known this for a while. They know what it means to be paladins of Voltron. They know the risks.

Shiro rests his elbows on his knees and breathes deeply.

He wants to protect them. He doesn't want any of them to wake up screaming or in a cold sweat and even though some of them already do he doesn't want it to get worse.

_He_ was the one who crashed the ship on Earth, who brought the Galra straight to their planet.

_He_ was the one who failed to protect the Holts when it mattered most.

_He_ was the one who couldn't warn the rest of humanity about the approaching storm.

A knock on his door. "Shiro?"

Allura.

"Come in," he says, standing.

The door slides open and Allura walks in, her hair down and neutral expression on her face that belies the concern in her eyes.

"Is something the matter?" Shiro asks.

"Well, I was going to ask you that," she replies. She sits on the small trunk by the door usually reserved for putting clothes in.

"Me? I'm fine."

"Shiro, it's halfway through the castle's night cycle and you're still awake."

Shiro blinks. It's been that long? He hadn't noticed. Allura must see his expression because the concern in her eyes pulls at her mouth.

"Please, be honest."

Honest. He's always been honest—he hasn't lied. Just…hidden some things. Downplayed a few others. But he hasn't lied to hurt the team or anything like that.

But Allura is looking at him and he realizes that he has been dishonest.

With himself.

Shiro sighs, staring at the floor. "I haven't been sleeping well," he admits. "Every time I close my eyes, I can see them. The Galra. And what I—what they do, what I've done…" he shakes his head, and he has to sit down on the edge of his bed because his legs don't want to work. "Before the Galra attacked us I was avoiding sleep. I…would've done better, if I hadn't been so scared of what goes on in my head."

"Shiro," Allura says, her tone hard enough that Shiro looks up, "none of those memories are your fault. And no matter what could have happened when the Galra attacked, the outcome is the same. We're all alive. You have every right to be scared, and I know what it means to be unable to sleep."

Shiro frowns. "You—"

"My last memories before I went under," Allura says, and her hands are neatly folded in her lap but Shiro can see the way her fingers are gripping each other, "are of fire, our ship falling apart around us as Zarkon gets ever closer." She smiles, but the expression is bitter. "I've been sleeping for ten thousand years, but I still wake up tired."

"Allura," Shiro starts, but the princess holds up a hand.

"My apologies. I came here out of concern for you. Tell me, is there anything we can do to help?"

"I can handle this," Shiro says, appreciating her concern. But he doesn't want to be a burden to anyone on the team, so the least he can do is solve his own problems. "Thank you, though."

"I will not accept that answer."

Shiro can only blink. "Huh?"

Allura leans forward. "I know you bear a heavy burden as the leader of Team Voltron, both mentally and emotionally. You are the head of the team, the leader charged with directing the rest even in times of great stress and danger. But that is a responsibility you do not have to bear alone. We are all here, Shiro. Any of us can and will help you with whatever you need, even if you don't realize you need it. It is not wrong for a leader to rely upon those he commands. Do you understand?"

Shiro swallows. He needs a few seconds to respond, but Allura simply waits.

"Thank you, Allura," he finally says. "Really, thank you. I—I don't even know what to say. I guess I just…didn't want to burden any of you, but if you don't think it's a burden—"

"We would never," Allura says firmly.

"Right. I'll ask for help if I need it, I promise."

Allura smiles, but Shiro looks her straight in the eyes. "Only if you do the same," he adds.

"Of course," Allura says, but Shiro can see that he caught her off guard.

"I mean it."

Her smile is softer this time, and for just a moment she truly does look like one of the last Alteans alive. "I know."

For a minute, they sit in silence. But it is a companionable silence, and though it fills the room it is not oppressive.

Allura stands. "I must go. Coran and I have been identifying any areas in need of repairs." She pauses in the doorway and glances back. "Get some sleep, Shiro."

Shiro does a mock solute. "Roger that, ma'am."

When his door is closed and his room empty, Shiro stares at the opposite wall for a long time. Then he shuts off the light, gets into bed, and settles into a deep sleep that the nightmares can only scratch at.

 

 

When Pidge wakes up, she gets an even grander reception than Shiro did. And if she cries a little when she sees everyone alive and well, no one comments.

Hunk produces a cake. It's gone in minutes.

 

 

"I've been meaning to ask," Lance says at breakfast, one forkful of green goo pointedly pushed in Shiro's direction.

"Hm?" Shiro asks, his meal already finished.

"What's up with your armor?"

"My…armor?" Shiro repeats. He glances down at it; it's a little scuffed from early morning training, but he can't see anything obviously wrong with it. He glances at the others. Keith and Pidge shrug, and Hunk waves his fork.

"He's probably talking about your lights."

"My lights?" Shiro repeats.

"Yes!" Lance says. "Thank you, Hunk. Why are your blue light thingies off? And Pidge's, too. Did they break or something?"

"The lights on the paladin armor would not _break_ ," Allura says, miffed.

"Indeed!" Coran says. "In fact, those lights will keep shining long after your bones become dust!"

"Comforting," Keith deadpans.

"Then why are theirs out?" Lance asks, turning his fork on Coran. A glob of goo splatters onto the table.

"I disabled them," Pidge says. Lance turns to face her, and the rest of the food goo slides off his fork, missing Keith's hand by inches. "The castle's power was off, so I figured we'd be harder to spot without them."

Lance lowers his fork. "Oh."

"Watch where you're pointing your silverware, idiot," Keith says when he isn't in imminent danger of being hit by collateral goop.

"Oh, are you scared of a little food goo?" Lance asks.

"No, I'm scared of your lack of spatial awareness," Keith counters. "It's terrifying."

" _You're_ terrifying."

"Guys, enough," Shiro interrupts. "Can't we get through one breakfast?"

Lance and Keith exchange look. That's all the warning Shiro gets before two plates of jiggling green goop are shoved in his face.

Without the cuffs, the food fight is vicious. Pidge goes down early, her wiry frame no match for the others' accuracy. Lance and Keith soon turn on each other, and Hunk takes them both down, but Allura, Coran, and Shiro call a truce before they run out of goo entirely.

Shiro counts it as a victory anyway.

 

 

Two days later he finds Pidge in the observation deck. It's a small room, but with windows that make the walls look invisible, leaving nothing but space stretching beyond.

"Hey," he says, sitting on the floor next to her. She's got her laptop out, though the screen is dark, and the headphones she wears are wrapped around her neck.

"Hey," Pidge replies. Her eyes are fixed outside, where the cosmos drift by with silent grace.

"Looking for asteroids?" Shiro asks.

Pidge shifts, only then seeming to notice that her laptop has turned off. "Yeah. I was just…listening, I guess. For old time's sake." She pauses, but Shiro waits. He can tell that she wants to say more. "I used to do this a lot. Er, not flying around in a spaceship, but…listening, with my gear. Sitting on the roof of the Academy and pointing my equipment at the stars. It's what I was doing the night you appeared."

Shiro's memories of the escape and subsequent crash are fuzzy, so he decides to steer the conversation away from that topic. "Did you ever hear anything interesting?"

Pidge perks up, a small spark entering her eyes. "Yeah! Besides all the Voltron stuff, though. Someone was once broadcasting a story on every frequency I tried. I think it was some kind of intergalactic prank? But it went on for hours."

"What was the story?"

Pidge bites her lip. "It's long."

Shiro stares out the transparent walls. "We've got time."

Pidge takes a minute to compile the story in her mind, and then she starts speaking. Shiro listens with quiet attention, none of the names or places sounding familiar and he thinks that's a small blessing. There are places and people the Galra have not touched.

He has to stop her at one point. "How did this alien survive after he ate his friends' leg? How did his friend survive?"

Pidge pushes up her glasses, flashing a quicksilver grin. "Well, from what I could tell, they come from a species known for its incredible regenerative capabilities, and so—"

But Shiro isn't listening. His mind has snapped back, flashes of an opponent in the ring that kept getting up no matter what, blood staining the sand and he just wanted it to be over but they wouldn't stay down and the crowd was roaring his bones vibrating his hands sore on the hilt of his weapon—

"Shiro?"

He blinks, and Pidge is staring at him with concern. "Are you okay?"

He opens his mouth to do his usual "I'm fine", but pauses. Then he sighs, leaning back and bracing his palms against the floor.

"I'm tired, Pidge," he admits. "And I didn't come down here just to chat about space. How are you holding up?"

"Me? I'm fine."

"Pidge." Shiro looks at her, really looks, and Pidge ducks her head. "Don't lie to me," Shiro says softly. "We're a team. You can trust me. What happened isn't something you can or should shove under the rug."

Pidge's shoulders rise and fall as she takes a deep breath. "My leg still hurts," she says after a beat. "It's healed. But…it just throbs, sometimes. And sometimes I wake up thinking everyone is gone, and it's—it's awful."

"So you come here?"

"It's nice. Peaceful. Can't be a prison with this much to see."

Shiro focuses on his breathing. "I get the same feeling, sometimes," he says. "The scar on my face—I don't even remember how I got it, but some days it burns worse than anything I do remember. And the nights can get longer than the days."

Pidge doesn't say anything for over a minute. "This sucks."

Shiro's lips quirk. "Yeah. It does." He adjusts his weight to take some of the pressure off his left palm and put more on his right. "If you ever need anything, Pidge, I'll always be around to talk. Anything at all."

Pidge nods. "Thanks."

The room is silent, but Shiro pretends he can hear the Castle humming around him.  And if he tries hard enough, he can sense his lion.

Shiro lies on his back. Even the floor is transparent, and the feeling of falling without falling is dizzying. Not enough to cause nausea, but his senses hover right on the edge of actual alertness.

"Hey, Shiro?"

He shifts his head. "Yeah?"

"There's…something I've been meaning to tell you."

Shiro sits up, giving Pidge his full attention.

"That day during training, when you—when we all saw that thing." Shiro remembers, mouth tightening. "I was the one poking around in your head."

Pidge glances up and sees Shiro's stare, and she swallows and the words pour out.

"I'm sorry, really, but I just thought I could find something about my family and I'm sorry for causing that I should have known it would hurt you and I'm so sorry Shiro I didn't mean—"

Shiro puts one arm around Pidge's shoulders and pulls her close, stemming the flow of apologies. "It's okay, kiddo," he says. "In the future, just ask, alright?"

It's not okay, not really. That incident had led to nightmares and cold sweats. But it hadn't been anything he hadn't dealt with already, and he can't blame Pidge for trying. She's young, and Shiro had never said anything about off-limits areas of his brain.

So he and Pidge stare out at the stars.

 

 

Hunk finds them two hours later, asleep against each other.

He grabs a blanket, drapes it over them as best he can, and then lets them rest.


End file.
